Car Facts

The dreaded "internal documents" reveal that Toyota executives have a rather low opinion of the current American political landscape, questioning the business environment, and even the engineering savvy of the regulators and congressmen who would lecture auto executives on how to design and market their wares. What, this is a surprise? Toyota: Democrats Not "Industry Friendly"

Internal Toyota documents derided the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as “activist” and “not industry friendly," a revelation that comes days before the giant automaker's top executives testify on Capitol Hill amid a giant recall.

According to a presentation obtained under subpoena by the House Oversight and Government Relations committee, Toyota referred to the “changing political environment” as one of its main challenges and anticipated a "more challenging regulatory" environment under the Obama administration's purview.

This document, in addition to piles of other records, will be front and center this week as the Japanese automaker girds to face lawmakers hungry for answers about a recall that has the company teetering.

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The July 2009 presentation also says the Department of Transportation and National Highway Transportation Safety Administration “under Obama administration” is “not industry friendly,” and anticipates a “more challenging regulatory and enforcement environment.”

It says the NHTSA “new team has less understanding of engineering issues and are primarily focused on legal issues.”

Not very flattering, and I'll bet that's something you hear in a lot of boardrooms and executive suites both in and out of the US. And it could be worse. After all it was an American company that designed and sold the supposedly defective accelerator and American factories that installed them. The formulation has been German cars beat Japanese beat American. Now, I think you could edit that to read German beats Japanese beats American-built Japanese beat American. All in all, not a good day for the American system.

It's no secret that a Japanese company like Toyota receives much more friendly handling from the Japanese government, than from ours. They've got their system and we've got ours, and their system lets a company skate by on product liability issues that would land an American company in court, in front of Congress, and on 60 Minutes. The American system is admirably focused on consumer safety, but has its own immense flaws, including the appalling spectacle of Henry Waxman - fresh off drafting legislation based on fraudulent "climate change" data - lecturing auto executives on engineering and safety, as if it never occurred to someone in the business of selling cars to not kill their customers (durrrrr!). As long as we're all lecturing one another on the obvious, how about a PR campaign instructing American drivers that they can stop a run-away car by shifting into neutral?

It's probably too much to expect Toyota to push back on the political attacks against them. They must realize these congressional hearings are nothing more than spectacles for the aggrandizement of the committee, and not a sober inquest. At the very least, they might want to mention that "sudden acceleration" is one of those politically convenient phenomena that don't actually exist, except in the sophisticated minds of the media and political elites that are supposed to be doing the thinking for the rest of us. I'm not holding my breath. The government has the whip hand right now, and Toyota knows it.